This invention relates generally to electronic distribution of software in computer networks. More particularly, the invention relates to an architecture for validating the proposed plan for installing the software before the plan is executed by the network administrator on the network.
It is common to couple a plurality of data processing systems interconnecting computing networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN). Each of the computer systems will have a plurality of software programs resident. In the infancy of such networks, a network administrator sat at each workstation with a set of diskettes and manually entered the parameters for each software product which needed to be installed, configured or maintained. With only a few workstations, administrators and users could afford to manually feed disks into their workstations and answer prompted questions during the installation or configuration process. As the size of the network increased, it naturally became more difficult to install software in such a manner. As the size and complexity of the network and the number of interdependencies between computer software products increased, configuring each workstation became an increasingly complex, time consuming, error prone process. Administrators could no longer afford this manual route and instead turned to products specifically designed to install and configure applications on workstations over the network.
It has therefore become increasingly accepted to install computer software and configure workstations remotely. One accepted term for this process is electronic software distribution (ESD). The electronic distribution of software within a network has been known in the art for almost a decade. Some of the more popular ESD products include: NetView Distribution Manager and the LAN Configuration Installation Distribution utility, both from the IBM Corporation and the Network Navigator from Novell. These products are designed to alleviate the onerous tasks of software distribution, installation and configuration over the network.
Although ESD products have been in existence for a number of years, these products do not completely address all problems faced by the network administrator. One of the largely unaddressed problems faced by the network administrator is the planning and execution of the distribution, installation and configuration of plurality of software programs on a group of workstations in the network. Because of the growing number of interdependencies between software products and the complexity of the networks, this is a daunting task.
There have been prior efforts to alleviate the burden on the network administrator. Previous efforts concentrated more on the "plumbing" of network installation, such as how to transport the images across the network or the physical building of the files needed in the installation and configuration process. These designs helped the administrator in the physical tasks, e.g., transporting an application throughout the network, but did not help the administrator plan what the physical tasks should be.
The present invention decomposes the network installation and configuration planning process into a series of discrete objects that help to abstract the problem and provide an easy, object-oriented, and graphical means by which administrators can set-up and view the applications that are slated to be installed and configured on a set of workstations on the LAN. The administrator can use this object-oriented representation to create the files needed for the physical installation and configuration process. The present invention provides administrators with a higher level view of the problem, shielding them from most of the physical implementation and leaving them to concentrate on the building blocks for the plan. Administrators can use this design to create objects in the "playground" or non-plan area which can be validated in a plan object and committed to create the actual files needed in the physical installation and configuration process.
The present invention represents an important improvement in electronic software distribution.